66a68a9523
We do not want to move POSIX utilities into subsections since they have standard names, but we can do whatever we want with Applications :^). This is particularly advantageous as many applications contain several images, which declutters the man1 directory.
57 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
57 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
## Name
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man - SerenityOS manual system
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## Description
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The SerenityOS manual pages, or "man pages", document various parts of the operating system for users and developers. They are one of the two parts of the SerenityOS documentation.
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The other part of the SerenityOS documentation is the developer documentation, which can be found in the `Documentation` folder in the repository ([online link](https://github.com/SerenityOS/serenity/tree/master/Documentation)). The developer documentation is focused on setting up a SerenityOS installation and workflow, as well as contributing to its development.
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Note that documentation might cover standardized topics (such as standard POSIX C library functions) or SerenityOS-specific extensions (such as custom file formats). SerenityOS intends to be spec-complaint with industry standard specifications. Non-compliance with a particular specification should be documented in the relevant sections.
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### Programs
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There are three ways of accessing the manual pages:
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- [`Help`(1)](help://man/1/Applications/Help) provides a graphical user interface for the man pages.
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- [`man`(1)](help://man/1/man) implements the standard POSIX utility by accessing the man pages in the terminal.
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- You can also choose to open the underlying Markdown files (see [Organization](#organization)) directly.
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### Organization
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Each SerenityOS manual page is a Markdown (.md) file under [`/usr/share/man`](/usr/share/man). The [main sections](#sections) live in the subdirectories `man1` through `man8`. Subsections are found within these directories.
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#### Sections
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The SerenityOS manual is split into the following _sections_, or _chapters_:
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1. User Programs - manuals for regular user applications and utilities
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2. System Calls - SerenityOS system call interface documentation
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3. Library Functions - SerenityOS C library function documentation
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4. Special Files - documentation for pseudo-files of the SerenityOS virtual file system
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5. File Formats - documentation for SerenityOS-specific file formats
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6. Games - manuals for SerenityOS games
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7. Miscellanea - various documentation that fits in no other category
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8. Sysadmin Tools - manuals for services and utilities intended for system administration
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Sections are subject to change in the future.
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#### Subsections
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Subsections exist to organize various large collections of topics within one main section. Subsections have their own pages (often a table of contents or general overview), so they are a category and a page at the same time. Subsections can be arbitrarily nested.
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The currently existing subsections are not listed here, as they are subject to frequent change.
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#### Naming
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Manpages are named via standard POSIX convention, where the section number follows the page name in brackets. For example, this page is called `man(7)`, but there's also a page called `man(1)` (the _program_ named `man`) and a page named [`Mitigations(7)`](help://man/7/Mitigations). This naming convention also applies to subsections.
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For pages in subsections, conventional directory notation with slashes is used. For example, the page `Widget/Button` in the subsection `GML(5)` has the full name `GML/Widget/Button(5)`.
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When you open a page via command-line arguments, the section is specified separately before the page name, for example `7 man`, `1 man`, or `7 Mitigations`.
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## See Also
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- [`man`(1)](help://man/1/man) To read manpages in the terminal
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- [`Help`(1)](help://man/1/Applications/Help) To read manpages in a GUI
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